Slaves of all - Jesus Army

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Bottled water –
while stocks last
Jesus Life editor James Stacey recalls a visit to
London – and reflects on London Jesus Centre,
due to open at the end of the year.
IN LONDON for a couple of
days this summer, I was struck
again by the vastness of the
place. It's like 50 cities in one.
A million people in Westminster
alone. Just about every
ethnic group I can imagine.
Vertiginous wealth and profound
poverty within spitting
distance of each other.
In the baking sun, Oxford
Street was a mass of hot humanity
scurrying from shrine
to shrine in the devotions of
the religion of the West: consumerism
(almost definitely
the fastest growing religion in
the world).
But what satisfaction is there
in this frantic faith? Beyond
McDonalds “golden arches”
there are only dying rainforests.
Coca-Cola is not really
“the real thing” and people
know it.
On this sweltering summer’s
day (rare, this year!) people
were thirsty. But it didn’t matter
– as long as you had enough
cash. The sellers of bottled
water were doing very well that
day (at £2 or £3 a bottle).
But what about that other
thirst? The deeper thirst – for
meaning, for forgiveness, for purpose?
Does consumerism satisfy?
And even if it does dull the
thirstiness of the rich, what
about those who can’t afford
Oxford Street’s bottled water?
What about the have-nots?
are in the ten per cent most
deprived wards in the country.
According to London Jesus
Centre manager, Rob Bentley,
“on an average night there
are as many rough sleepers in
Westminster as in the rest of
the UK put together”.
But it’s not only the obvious
kinds of poverty – there
are also many with an aching
thirst for reality: what Rob calls
“materially rich people who
“consumerism, the fastest growing
religion in the world”
WESTMINSTER
ROUGH SLEEPERS
50% of rough sleepers in
Westminster are new to rough
sleeping in the year.
40% of rough sleepers have
alcohol problems.
33% have drug problems.
40% have mental health
problems.
25% are from the new EU
countries.
Westminster City Council statistics
www.jesuscentre.org.uk
Just around the corner from
Oxford Circus, the Jesus Fellowship
is about to open its
third Jesus Centre. It aims to
play its part in meeting the
needs people have in the centre
of our capital: material and
spiritual needs.
The other day someone
remarked to me “There are no
poor people in Westminster”.
Wrong, actually. There are lots
when you look beyond the
bright lights and the bottled
water. Five Westminster wards
are also in great spiritual need
and facing problems of a different
kind”.
It all reminds me of something
Jesus said: “Everyone
who drinks this water will be
thirsty again, but whoever
drinks the water I give him will
never thirst. Indeed, the water
I give him will become in him
a spring of water welling up to
eternal life.”
London Jesus Centre aims
to offer this life-giving water
– free of charge.
More on London Jesus Centre overleaf
Jesus Life Three/2007 Page 25